2019 Ashes will Herald Test Championship

Published 05/01/2018, 3:31 PM EDT

Following the announcement that there will be a World Test Championship, there have been a lot of activity surrounding it. Now, it seems that the 2019 Ashes series will kick off the inaugural World Test Championship. The championship is an attempt to revitalise the game’s oldest format.

The Ashes will be played later next summer after the World Cup. The final is expected to be played at the iconic Lord’s cricket ground.

The International Cricket Council confirmed that the Test championship will commence in 2019 and the Ashes will be the first series. However, there is still the matter of the points system. But it is being discussed internally at the ICC.

Article continues below this ad

Nine teams will play six Test series over a two-year period. Those series will count towards the Test championship table. Each series will comprise of two to five Test matches including three home series and three away for each team. James Sutherland, chief executive, Cricket Australia, confirmed that the 2019 Ashes series in England will be the first fixture of the new league structure.

He also confirmed that Australian players Pat Cummins and Tim Paine have been appointed to the ethics committee. Their appointment comes in the aftermath of the ball tampering scandal.

Cummins is likely to be vice-captain while Paine leads the Australian side. Meanwhile, the search for a new coach to replace Darren Lehmann has started.

The ethics committee has also drafted the likes of Shane Watson and George Bailey, who both have squeaky clean disciplinary records. Last year, The Ethics Centre conducted a review of Australia’s Olympic Committee and was highly critical of its workplace culture.

The result of the ball-tampering saga was a year-long ban for captain Steve Smith and vice captain David Warner. The player directly involved, Cameron Bancroft was suspended for nine months and head coach Lehmann stepped down.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE :

Written by:

Dhruv George is a senior Formula One and NASCAR analyst for EssentiallySports, having authored nearly 12000 articles spanning different sports like F1, NASCAR, Tennis, NFL, and eSports. He graduated with a PG Diploma in Journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications. Dhruv has also conducted interviews with F1 driver Pierre Gasly and Moto2 rider Tony Arbolino.